Preach The Word	Vol. 10 No. 1 September/October, 2006

Sermon Helps
Compiled by Pastor Daron Lindemann

Pentecost 13

How wise are you? Have you improved with age and experience so that you always make the perfect decision? Can you see through a scam with your eyes closed, and impress your friends by always coming up with the perfect solution for every dilemma? The Bible says it doesn’t matter. According to God’s Word, we must disregard the notion that wisdom is some special endowment for gifted, intelligent people only - the CEOs of the world and Yodas of the galaxy. We must abandon our quest for wisdom as if it is a destination, a finish line at some point out there that when we make it we will finally be functional and fulfilled. Like the straw man in the Wizard of Oz on his search for wisdom, we must realize we’ve had it all along. Rather than ask, “Am I wise?” people who follow the better-than-yellow-brick-road path of God’s Word in faith can confidently declare, “I am wise.” Even more, believers who pay attention to wisdom’s call become wiser still.

Pentecost 15

Anne Landers, in an article from The Washington Post, (March 20, 1999) speaks to this self-righteous spirit:

If you can start the day without caffeine, If you can get going without pep pills, If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles, If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it, If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time, If you can overlook it when something goes wrong through no fault of yours and those you love take it out on you, If you can take criticism and blame without resentment, If you can ignore a friend’s limited education and never correct him, If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend, If you can conquer tension without medical help, If you can relax without liquor, If you can sleep without the aid of drugs, If you can say honestly that deep in your heart you have no prejudice against creed, color, religion or politics, Then, my friend, you are almost as good as your dog.

Pentecost 16

God has a purpose for making strong hands holding on to idols feeble, firm and flexible knees walking on the wrong path shaky, and hearts relying on one’s own goodness fearful and he accomplished that purpose with Judah.

Pentecost 17

From the sermon “Determined to Suffer” posted online at www.wels.net/ptw 
Imagine that you are a 21-year-old Marine serving in Iraq, eager for a taste of home, so you get on the internet, log onto the website of your hometown newspaper, and discover that your father is leading anti-war demonstrations in the front yard of your home. He has stripped your bedroom of ribbons, certificates, and any other Marine material, and is making statements about how embarrassed he is that you are fighting in Iraq. Imagine that you are a nurse working in the ER and a desperate mother comes screaming though the doors carrying her six-year-old daughter, bloody, bruised, and limp from being beaten and violated by her drunken dad. Fathers are supposed to protect their children from shame and hurt, not cause them shame and hurt!!

Pentecost 18

So, who’s the greatest? Polls tell us that Oklahoma is the No. 1 college football team in the country. The World Series will soon determine which baseball team is No. 1. If you are a race car enthusiast, you know that Matt Kenseth is to top NASCAR driver so far this year. Serena Williams is currently the greatest woman tennis player, and some people think Tiger Woods is the greatest golfer ever. Interest in who’s the greatest is almost an obsession with many people.

On Presidents’ Day remember two of our greatest presidents who were born in February, Washington and Lincoln. But presidents like Wm Henry Harrison or James Garfield don’t rate a date on the calendar. Then there are also the Nobel prize winners who were selected this past week, and in a couple of months, Time magazine will select its Man of the Year. A few years back Life magazine published a special double issue which it called The Millennium, subtitled “100 Events that Changed the World.” It also listed the names of men and women who made the greatest impact on the world during the previous 1000 years.

Pentecost 19

From the sermon “Be a Third-Person Christian” posted online at www.wels.net/ptw 
Using the first person (“I” and “me” and “my”) over and over again is just symptomatic of a larger issue – the person is, at best, totally self-involved, and, at worst, arrogant beyond measure … As you grow in your appreciation of the service that Jesus offered you, Be a Third-Person Christian, for the glory of the Redeemer and the benefit of the redeemed.

Reformation

From the sermon “Reformation Never Ends” posted online at www.wels.net/ptw
Today, then, on this Festival of Reformation, we do more than remember the Lord’s rich grace in causing his gospel to sound forth through Luther at a time when the good news of free and full forgiveness was almost lost. We also remember that the Lord in his grace refuses to let his gospel be silenced and absolutely, positively will not let his work of reformation come to an end. Because the Lord’s love never changes, Reformation Never Ends.